


SELECTIONS FROM "THE OLDESTE & MOSTE COMPLET ENCYLCLOPÆDIA of MONSTERS of the FEMALE FORM with QUOTES, STORIES, & COMMENTS from EXPERTS IN THE MATTER"

by Casylum



Series: Borkage 2018 [1]
Category: Monster Girl Encyclopedia, Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 02:29:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14322576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casylum/pseuds/Casylum
Summary: Purchas thy copie of this moste Useful & Edifying Tome today, where-ever Books are Sold





	SELECTIONS FROM "THE OLDESTE & MOSTE COMPLET ENCYLCLOPÆDIA of MONSTERS of the FEMALE FORM with QUOTES, STORIES, & COMMENTS from EXPERTS IN THE MATTER"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luckybarton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckybarton/gifts).



[...]

 **KUCHISAKE-ONNA** : A Japanese spirit with a mouth that stretches from ear to ear. Known to ask "Am I pretty?" as a warning sign of things to come. 

**WIELDS** : SCISSORS, KNIFE/SWORD OF UNKNOWN SIZE.  
**WEAKNESSES** : MANNERS, FRUIT, CANDLES.

"She just asked me if she was pretty," says Keiko Arakawa, resident of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. "I just sort of stood there, like, 'Maybe? I'm not sure.'" Arakawa, it must be noted, is partially blind. "It confused her, I guess, because I was able to get away."

Arakawa's story is uncommon, as most people who have seen the Kuchisake-Onna have either been stabbed fatally by a pair of scissors, bisected by a blade of indeterminate size, or had their mouths slashed or stretched to match her own.

Arakawa has reported seeing what looks like a woman with a red surgical mask in places around her hometown, including her eye doctor's but, as of this writing, isn't worried that she'll have a repeat encounter.

[...]

 **LAMIA (PL. LAMIAE)** : A Greek mythological creature, said to be the result of Hera cursing a woman to become a child-eating monster after destroying her own children. Occasionally said to be sleepless, eyeless, and, increasingly, possessed of snake-like qualities, to the point of occasionally being depicted as half-snake, half-woman.

 **WIELDS** : TEETH, SNAKE COILS  
**WEAKNESSES** : FIRE, KNIVES, REFRIGERATORS

Amarjeet Varma, the head herpetologist at the Miami Zoo, has this to say about the matter: "The concept of a being that is half-woman, half-snake is, at its core, ridiculous. I was told you would be interviewing me for an encyclopedia, not page six of the Enquirer."

For all her abruptness, Varma is correct: no sign has ever been found that lamiae are in anyway real, persistent myth aside. "Besides," Varma adds, "even if they were real, the conflicting descriptions of their appearance and origin make accurately spotting them impossible." 

She takes off her sunglasses as we enter the dark, cool reptile house, eyes flaring yellow-green in the low light, smiling sharply as this author shivers at the temperature change. "Like hunting snipe, you know? Everything's a monster when you don't know what it looks like."

[...]

 **STRZYGA** : A Polish demon born with two hearts, two souls, and two sets of teeth. While harmless during their original lifetime, when a STRZYGA dies, only one soul is said to leave for the afterlife, leaving the second soul behind to terrorize the unwary, often by sucking out their blood, eating their insides, and dive-bombing them in the form of owls.

 **WIELDS** : TALONS, TEETH, BEAK, KNOWLEDGE OF THE GREAT BEYOND  
**WEAKNESSES** : KNIVES, FIRE, BEHEADINGS

The S—— graveyard in W—— is unremarkable, except for one thing: all of its inhabitants, from the first grave (dated 17— ) to the most recent (dated 20— ) are buried without their heads. The skulls of the some 300-odd bodies are located in the columbarium that runs along the western edge of the cemetery, with plaques indicating which grave corresponds with which head.

"There's a lot of superstition here," says Kazia Sówka, current owner and operator of S——. "Lots of tales of people coming back from the dead, transforming into animals, you know, typical vampire stuff. You do what you can to help make people feel comfortable, and if that's keeping the head separate from the body, that's what you do."

Sówka and her family have been in the funeral business for a long time, dating back to before the first graves at S—— were ever filled. 

"You learn a lot, doing this work for that long," she says with a laugh, showing off very, very white teeth. "Almost like a second sense, you might say. We're never caught off guard."

**Author's Note:**

> have a treat!
> 
> Monsters and monster descriptions gleaned from Wikipedia's list of Female Legendary Creatures, all further mistakes are mine.


End file.
